Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 February 16

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February 16

WWII Imperial Army of Japan Medical Officer Stationed in the Philippines

Seeking information on a "Major Sekiguchi," (no first name given) the Japanese Imperial Army officer in charge of the medical care of hostages and POWs in Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac Province, Luzon, Philippines. Reference found in O'Donnell: Andersonville of the Pacific Author: Col (US Army Ret) John A. Olson. pp.29

Looking for any information regarding this individual such as first name, any background information, where exactly he was stationed and for how long as well as the chain of command he answered to. 2601:980:C100:34F0:4568:6394:EBBA:F2F0 (talk) 23:42, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Major Hisashi Sekiguchi, seems to be quite a common name, so a quick google search gives plenty of false positives. --Soman (talk) 01:02, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Kentucky's Fighting 192nd Light G.H.Q. Tank Battalion: A Saga of Kentucky's Part in the Defense of the Philippines (p. 79) says that Sekiguchi was a member of the 14th Army Medical Department (found in the Google search result as there is a "snippet view" only).

The Causes of the Bataan Death March Revisited says that he was a member of the planning group which Masaharu Homma formed to work out the logistics of the Bataan Death March; the plan initially conformed to the Geneva Conventions but "due to a combination of bad luck, neglect, and incompetence on the part of a number of Homma’s officers, the plan failed miserably".

Turning the name around (Japanese convention puts the surname first) found Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese by John A. Glusman (p. 169), which describes some of his activities at Hospital No. 2 at Corregidor. Alansplodge (talk) 18:49, 19 February 2020 (UTC)